Re: A question about medical training

[carol marcus <csmarcus@ucla.edu>]

At 01:51 PM 7/20/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear RADSAFERs,
>
>We have a local anti-nuke activist who is a physician (please note that I am
>deliberately not identifying him).  However, in a fairly extended
>conversation with me he seemed to know very little about ionizing radiation.
>He had a vague idea about half life, but did not understand the relationship
>between half-life and radioactivity, did not appear to know what alpha, beta
>and gamma radiation were, didn't understand decay chains, etc.  Most of what
>he asked me about was stuff I used to teach in (college) freshman chemistry.
>So my question is: what is taught currently in medical school and pre-med
>courses about ionizing radiation?  could someone give me a summary?  How
>much is a doctor expected to know (he sends people for x-rays, after all)?
>Was this person just trying to see if I knew what I was talking about?
>
>
>
>Thanks for your help
>Ruth F. Weiner, Ph. D.
>7336 Lew Wallace NE
>Albuquerque, NM
>505-856-5011
>fax 505-856-5564
>ruth_weiner@msn.com
>
>
>
>
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Dear Ruth and Radsafers:

Virtually nothing is taught about ionizing radiation in medical school.  In
most schools they just teach you to stand back when the tech comes to take a
portable film.  It's terrible.  

As far as premed is concerned, it is doubtful if docs learn anything there,
either.  "Baby" physics 101 and 102 doesn't cover nuclear physics, and
neither do chemistry courses.  

Of course, if the doc was a physics major undergrad, or a radiation
biologist in graduate school, or a nuclear engineer in the nuclear navy,
that's not the case.  However, there are not many of those..................!

Ciao, Carol

Carol S. Marcus, Ph.D., M.D.
<csmarcus@ucla.edu>

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